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Michelle Hall, Japanese Studies Librarian
April 1996
The objectives of the Japanese Conspectus are:
Assessment was based on the criteria in the Australian Conspectus Manual: a collection assessment guide.
The following methods recommended by the Australian Conspectus Manual were used:
Codes Adopted in this document
CL=Current Collection level; AC=Acquisition Commitment; GL=Goal level
0=Out of scope
1=Minimal, Uneven; 1a=Minimal with Uneven Coverage; 1b=Minimal with even coverage
2=Basic information; 2a=Basic or introductory materials; 2b=Undergraduate course work
3=Intermediate; 3a=Undergraduate course work, more advanced level; 3b= Masters by course work
4= Research level
5=Comprehensive
The Japanese collection comprises books, periodicals and CD-Roms in the Japanese language. It supports Japanese language teaching, courses in Japanese Studies and graduate and academic research.
The collection is mainly housed in the East Asian Collection, on the third floor of the Baillieu Library. Other parts of the collection are held in Kidd's Store, the Law Library, the Maps Collection and Media Services Library. Japanese materials held in the East Asian Collection are classified using the Harvard-Yenching classification system, while materials held outside the East Asian collection are classified according to the parent institution's classification scheme. This is Dewey in most cases but Moys in the Law Library. In the Kidd's Store Western and Japanese/Chinese language materials are intershelved reflecting the nature of the Kidd's Store as a storage area, not a browsing collection.
The University of Melbourne began to collect Japanese language material in the early 1960's, and there are currently some 12,000 volumes in the collection (see the section relating to Periodicals for specific details of journals). The collection has areas of some strength; however, this report identifies several areas where the collection development could be modified in order to better support the University's teaching and research programs. These are listed below and in terms of the Harvard-Yenching classification system.
Areas of the collection which should be maintained at, or upgraded to, research level
Sub-classes of the Harvard-Yenching classification scheme:
1. Areas which are considered to be at research level (level 4) and which will be maintained as such:
At present there are no areas which could be considered to be at research level.
2. Areas which ought to be upgraded to research level:
In order to provide for new undergraduate and postgraduate programs and research demands, a number of areas ought to be upgraded.
The Historical Sciences section is considered to be at level 2 (basic information), and the Japanese History section in particular is at level 2b (undergraduate coursework). This is in part due to the patchy nature of the collection. Courses taught at the university and staff research interests require that this section be upgraded.
Particular strengths of this section are the sociology of Japan; customs, manners and folklore; family and women; and communities in society. Given the research and teaching needs of academic staff, priority needs to be given to further acquisitions in women's studies and communities in society/labour/anthropology, and cultural studies. The area of Japanese popular culture and performing arts should be upgraded to at least 2b, to adequately cover new subjects being introduced from this year.
The current collection holds only 64 items in this section, at a level of 1b (minimal with even coverage). Much more investment needs to be made to satisfy research needs in teaching of languages (including computer-assisted language learning), returned students (kikoku shijo), and other research areas of academic staff.
This is the main research area of the staff of the Japanese Section, and the 1217 volumes currently held are not adequate for the needs of all staff. The Japanese linguistics and language section as a whole has been given a level of 2b (undergraduate coursework), but this encompasses a range of areas from level 1 (minimal, uneven coverage) to 2b. The strengths in the collection are in dictionaries, grammars and textbooks, but there are major weaknesses in known research fields such as phonology, dialects, and psycholinguistics. Several new staff in the Japanese section this year will have further, different requirements of the collection, and their needs must be met along with those of other staff.
While there are some valuable works in this section, which are of a standard necessary to perform research, overall the collection in this area is lacking in many fundamental, general works. Academic staff research interests span a wide range of topics within this area, and much more investment is needed to bring this section to research level 4. Currently it has been analysed at level 2 (undergraduate coursework), with architecture in particular at level 2a (basic information: introductory). This is because while there are some items of research standard, for example the extremely rare multi-volume Juyo bunkazai shuri koji hokokusho, there are serious gaps in the collection. There is anticipated to be significant development in postgraduate student numbers in this area.
The medical area has been analysed to only level 1, due to the overwhelming lack of suitable items. This is an area of research which is admittedly very new, but needs further consideration as the research interests of staff expand. Another area which is starting to become the focus of research and interest is engineering and technology, currently designated level 1. There are particular needs in the areas of new technology, computer-assisted language learning and automated offices/learning environments.
The Japanese collection currently subscribes to only 20 Japanese-language titles in print form, and receives a further 35 print form titles as gifts. There are 3 CD-Rom titles.
The paid subscription titles can be categorised as follows:
Area Number of titles
This reflects to an extent current teaching and research areas, however there are some obvious and serious shortfalls in the areas of architecture and sociology/anthropology.
The 35 gift titles can be categorised in the following way:
Area Number of titles
University research reports (kiyo, ronso) 30
Economics
4
Local newspaper 1
There is an overwhelming number of research reports, which cover many different faculties of the universities which donate them.
See the appendix for details of titles, holdings and other information.
1. Kidd's Store
Due to lack of shelf space in the East Asian Collection, a total of 112 titles (1520 volumes) are kept in Kidd's Store. Among these, several titles in historical sciences and bibliographic works (particularly items such as Nihon no meicho and Bakumatsu Meiji shimbun zenshu) are very important.
2. Law Library
Law materials (such as statutes and legislation) are housed here. Materials about the law are kept in the EA collection. Recent acquisitions of major journal titles from Monash University have added significantly to the collection.
3. Media Services
Some Japanese language cassette tapes and video tapes are located here.
4. Baillieu General Collection
A small number of dictionaries and textbooks can be found here.
5. Maps
There are several maps and atlases which are not yet catalogued.
6. ERC Library
The ERC library holds primarily language teaching kits and textbooks. These are of a fairly introductory level.
7. Architecture Library
There is a considerable collection of folios and lavishly illustrated texts held here. Many items on gardens and tea house architecture, and collections of illustrated works of individual architects.
8. Uncatalogued backlog
There are approximately 2000 volumes, 500 of which are law materials received from the Asian Law Centre. Other items are from areas such as architecture, language, women's studies, social problems. There are several very rare and valuable sets, such as the 51 volume Kokushi sosho. Special plans have been made to clear the Japanese backlog by the end of this year (1997).
9. Japanese Studies via the WWW
There are links to many Japanese Studies related sites on the WWW homepage of the Japanese Section. This is under continual development and can be accessed at:
http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections//asian/eajap.html
1. Monographs
The EA collection was analysed against three main bibliographies:
1. An introductory bibliography for Japanese Studies. Compiled by the Toho Gakkai. Tokyo: The Japan Foundation 1974- In two sections: Humanities, and Social Sciences.
UniM Baill REF 016.952 INTR
Bibliographic checking results:
| Conspectus line | Subjects | Total items checked | Held | Not held | % held |
| HYH162-167 | Early modern history | 73 | 2 | 71 | 2.7 |
| HYH168-173 | Mod.& contemporary history | 42 | 8 | 33 | 21.4 |
| HYS18 | Sociology | 154 | 12 | 142 | 7.7 |
| HYH20-44 | Cultural anthropology | 99 | 6 | 93 | 6 |
| HYS51 | Economics | 163 | 14 | 149 | 8.5 |
| HYS164-184 | Education | 121 | 3 | 118 | 2.4 |
Comments: Checking against this bibliography shows EA holdings to be extremely weak, especially in the areas of education and early modern history, although the overall result is very poor.
2. Gaikokujin ni Nihongo o oshieru tame no katarogu (Bessatsu Nihongo) [A catalogue for the teaching of Japanese to foreigners]. Tokyo: ALC, 1989.
Ba EA 9515.81 G268
Bibliographic checking results:
| Conspectus line | Subjects | Total items checked | Held | Not held | % held |
| HYL75 | Japanese language | 136 | 69 | 67 | 50.7 |
Comments: This bibliography contains a list of the basic essential texts necessary in teaching the Japanese language. Given the publication date of the bibliography it was possible to consider that all the items listed therein would be held by EA, however, a rate of only 50% was achieved.
3. A guide to reference books for Japanese Studies. Tokyo: International House of Japan, 1989.
Ba EA 016.952 GUID
Bibliographic checking results:
| Conspectus line | Subjects | Total items checked | Held | Not held | % held |
| HYH0 | Historical sciences | 29 | 12 | 17 | 41.3 |
| HYS/HGO | Social sciences, law/politics | 7 | 5 | 2 | 71.4 |
| HYL75 | Japanese language | 9 | 6 | 3 | 66.6 |
| HYF0 | Fine and recreative arts | 5 | 6 | 9 | 40 |
| HYN/HYA | Natural sciences, agriculture/technology | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50 |
| HYG0 | Generalia/bibliography | 25 | 15 | 10 | 60 |
Comments: The totals reflect recent efforts to improve the Reference collection in EA. Many important works have been acquired in the past three years, but there is some unevenness, with held percentages ranging from 40% to 71.4%.
2. Periodicals
The periodical holdings have been analysed against the collection held at two major Japanese Studies institutions: The University of Hawaii at Manoa and Stirling University, Scotland. Only 24 of the 55 titles held at Melbourne could be found on the University of Hawaii periodicals list, with only 5 of the titles held at Melbourne on the Stirling list of 32. The conclusion to be drawn is that:
1. there are few titles held in the East Asian collection; and
2. of those few titles, many are not held by major research institutions for Japanese studies
Searched: all 55 print titles held in the East Asian Collection
Hawaii -- total 240 titles. Number of those 240 also held at EA = 24 (10%)
Stirling -- total 32 titles. Number of those 32 also held at EA = 5 (15%)
Note: These two universities were chosen for their slightly different emphases - Hawaii is a large Japanese studies institution which has a collection to which EA could reasonably aspire, and is a benchmark against which we could measure ourselves in the hope of reaching a similar level. Stirling is very similar to the EA collection as it stands. Although we have few of the titles held at Stirling, they do hold many titles which are specific to their geographic location (ie, Eikoku Digest (England Digest), Europe). While we should acquire some of the titles they have, in some ways our collection is quite adequate to our needs.
I would like to express my thanks to the people who helped to complete this conspectus process, for their advice and support and for practical assistance: my colleagues Bick-har Yeung, Hisako Goode, Lo-pei Kneale, Wei Ying, Tammy Leung; also Tim Meredith and Pat Knight; academic colleagues Prof. Bill Coaldrake, Dr. Carolyn Stevens, Dr. Vera Mackie and the Japanese language teaching staff.
1. Bibliography and indexes used in list checking Japanese materials
2. Japanese Conspectus Harvard-Yenching worksheet report
3. Japanese Conspectus shelf-scanning report
4. List of periodicals - subscribed/gift/discontinued
A guide to Japanese reference books. Chicago: American Library Association, 1966.
(UniM Baill EA REF 9646 A084)
A guide to reference books for Japanese Studies. Tokyo: International House of Japan, 1989.
(UniM Baill EA 016.952 GUID)
An introductory bibliography for Japanese Studies. Compiled by the Toho Gakkai. Tokyo: The Japan Foundation, 1974- Part 1: Social Sciences, Part 2: Humanities.
(UniM Baill REF 016.952 INTR)
A student guide to Japanese sources in the humanities. Y. Makino & M. Saito. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Center for Japanese Studies. The University of Michigan, 1994.
(UniM Baill EA 016.952 MAKI)
Gaikokujin ni Nihongo o oshieru tame no katarogu (Bessatsu Nihongo) (A catalogue for the teaching of Japanese to foreigners). Tokyo: ALC, 1989.
(UniM Baill EA 9515.81 G268)
Keizai bunken kaidai 1981 nenban (A bibliographic introduction to economics materials 1981). Tokyo: Daiyamondosha, 1981.
(UniM Baill EA 9514.3 K230 1981)
Nihon gakujutsu shiryo somokuroku 1983nenban (The general catalogue of learned materials in Japan 1983). Tokyo: Asahi Shuppansha, 1992.
(UniM Baill EA 9683 N659 1983 parts 1, 2)
Nihon joseishi kenkyu bunken mokuroku (A bibliography of womens studies research in Japan).
Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1983-
(UniM Baill EA 9514.17 N654 v.1-3)
Last modified: August 18 2004.
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